The object of the final project is to find a research article related to the course material, read it carefully, and write a brief (max 1-2 page, or as little as a couple paragraphs) summary of its results, including some indication of how accessible it was (notation, concepts, etc.) based on material covered during the semester. The object is to determine whether you can read and understand a topical research article at least at the 33-50% level, though it might have been incomprehensible at the start of the semester.

[According to the university guidelines: "A course that requires a culminating end-of-semester exercise and does not offer a final examination must allow students at least until the date appearing on the official examination schedule promulgated by the Office of the University Registrar to complete submission of materials associated with the culminating exercise." For this class, the exam schedule has <Tue 1:00PM-1:59PM ⇒ Thu,19-May-11 2:00PM-4:30PM>, giving until Thu 19 May (though easier for me if they're spaced out to arrive earlier).]

Sample arXiv searches: Cnot, qubit, GHZ, quantum comput*, teleportation, ... , turn up things such as the list below, but feel free especially to survey references therein, or any other resource.

The list below is winnowed from the over 1000 from the past three years with comput* or qubit in title, on the basis of "newsworthiness", in this case meaning that most have received some descriptive link from news or blogspace (follow the "blog link" near the bottom of the right margin). They are roughly classified according to overall area, with the largest group ("Theory and Algorithms") at the bottom. Some of the more recent ones have also been mentioned in the latest annual Workshop on Quantum Information Processing. There is another interesting set of references in the Quantum Algorithm Zoo. This list is not meant to be either definitive or representative (and even some of the "classifications" may be wrong), just a sample — feel free to suggest other possibilities.

Recent Surveys

• An Overview of Quantum Computing for Technology Managers (Eleanor G. Rieffel, 2008)
  
• Optical Quantum Computation (T.C.Ralph and G.J.Pryde, 2011)
  
• The Computational Complexity of Linear Optics (Scott Aaronson and Alex Arkhipov, 2010)
  
• New Developments in Quantum Algorithms (Andris Ambainis, 2010)
  
• Algorithms for Quantum Computers (Jamie Smith and Michele Mosca, 2010)
  
• Quantum Proofs for Classical Theorems (Andrew Drucker , Ronald de Wolf , 2009)
  
• Quantum algorithms for algebraic problems (Andrew M. Childs and Wim van Dam, 2008)
  
• Quantum Algorithms (Michele Mosca, 2008)
  
• Quantum Computational Complexity (John Watrous, 2008)
  
• Optical Quantum Computing (Jeremy L. O'Brien, 2008)
  

NMR

• Study of Multiple Rounds of Error Correction in Solid State NMR QIP (Ben Criger, Osama Moussa and Raymond Laflamme, 2011)
  
• Quantum control of proximal spins using nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging (M. S. Grinolds, P. Maletinsky, S. Hong, ..., 2011)
  
• Entanglement Control of Azobenzene by Photoisomerization in NMR Quantum Computer (Taiga Yasuda, Masahito Tada-Umezaki, Mikio Nakahara, ..., 2010)
  

Error Correction and Architecture

• Entanglement can increase asymptotic rates of zero-error classical communication over classical channels (Debbie Leung, Laura Mancinska, William Matthews, ..., 2010)
  
• Approximate Quantum Error Correction via Complementary Observables (Joseph M. Renes, 2010)
  
• Improving zero-error classical communication with entanglement (Toby S. Cubitt, Debbie Leung, William Matthews, ..., 2009)
  
• Experimental quantum coding against qubit loss error (Chao-Yang Lu, Wei-Bo Gao, Jin Zhang, ..., 2008)
  

Quantum keys

• Experimental demonstration of phase-remapping attack in a practical quantum key distribution system (Feihu Xu, Bing Qi, Hoi-Kwong Lo, 2010)
  
• Quantum key distribution system in standard telecommunications fiber using a short wavelength single-photon source (R. J. Collins, P. J. Clarke, V. Fernandez, ..., 2010)
  
• Reference frame independent quantum key distribution (Anthony Laing, Valerio Scarani, John G. Rarity, ..., 2010)
  
• Practical private database queries based on a quantum key distribution protocol (Markus Jakobi, Christoph Simon, Nicolas Gisin, ..., 2010)
  
• The Case for Quantum Key Distribution (Douglas Stebila and Michele Mosca and Norbert Lutkenhaus, 2009)
  
• Gigahertz decoy quantum key distribution with 1 Mbit/s secure key rate (A. R. Dixon, Z. L. Yuan, J. F. Dynes, ..., 2008)
  
• The Security of Practical Quantum Key Distribution (Valerio Scarani, Helle Bechmann-Pasquinucci, Nicolas J. Cerf, ..., 2008)
  

Experimental realizations

• Microtrap arrays on magnetic film atom chips for quantum information science (V.Y.F. Leung, A. Tauschinsky, N.J. van Druten, ..., 2011)
  
• Testing tripartite Mermin inequalities by spectral joint-measurements of qubits (J. S. Huang, C. H. Oh, and L. F. Wei, 2011)
  
• Is there a speed limit for trapped ion quantum computers? (Hoi-Kwan Lau, Daniel F.V. James, 2011)
  
• Single-step implementation of the controlled-Z gate in a qubit/bus/qubit device (Andrei Galiautdinov, 2011)
  
• A Single-Atom Quantum Memory (Holger P. Specht, Christian Nolleke, Andreas Reiserer, ..., 2011)
  
• Time-resolved detection and mode-mismatch in linear optics quantum gates (Peter P. Rohde, Timothy C. Ralph, 2011)
  
• Entanglement in a Solid State Spin Ensemble (Stephanie Simmons, Richard M. Brown, Helge Riemann, ..., 2010)
  
• Randomized benchmarking of atomic qubits in an optical lattice (S. Olmschenk, R. Chicireanu, K. D. Nelson, ..., 2010)
  
• Generation of Three-Qubit Entangled States using Superconducting Phase Qubits (M. Neeley, R. C. Bialczak, M. Lenander, ..., 2010)
  
• Natural and artificial atoms for quantum computation (Iulia Buluta, Sahel Ashhab, and Franco Nori, 2010)
  
• Quantum Logic Between Distant Trapped Ions (S. Olmschenk, D. Hayes, D. N. Matsukevich, ..., 2009)
  
• Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits (S. Olmschenk, D. N. Matsukevich, P. Maunz, ..., 2009)
  
• Freezing a Coherent Field Growth in a Cavity by Quantum Zeno Effect (Julien Bernu , Samuel Deleglise ,, 2008)
  
• Bell inequality violation with two remote atomic qubits (D. N. Matsukevich, P. Maunz, D. L. Moehring, ..., 2008)
  
• Testing spooky action at a distance (D. Salart, A. Baas, C. Branciard, ..., 2008)
  
• Single-photon-level quantum memory at room temperature (K. F. Reim, P. Michelberger, K.C. Lee, ..., 2010)
  
• Quantum Storage of Photonic Entanglement in a Crystal (Christoph Clausen, Imam Usmani, Felix Bussieres, ..., 2010)
  
• Interaction-Free All-Optical Switching via Quantum-Zeno Effect (Yu-Ping Huang, Joseph B. Altepeter, and Prem Kumar, 2010)
  
• Metropolitan all-pass and inter-city quantum communication network (Teng-Yun Chen, Jian Wang, Hao Liang, ..., 2010)
  
• Transport of 3D spatially entangled photons through a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (W. Loffler and T. G. Euser and E. R. Eliel and M. Scharrer and P., 2010)
  
• Quantum entanglement distribution with 810 nm photons through telecom fibers (Evan Meyer-Scott, Hannes Hubel, Alessandro Fedrizzi, ..., 2010)
  
• Opto-mechanical transducers for long-distance quantum communication (K. Stannigel, P. Rabl, A. S. Sorensen, ..., 2010)
  
• Room-temperature implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with a single electronic spin in diamond (Fazhan Shi, Xing Rong, Nanyang Xu, ..., 2010)
  
• Entanglement of Atomic Qubits using an Optical Frequency Comb (D. Hayes, D. N. Matsukevich, P. Maunz, ..., 2010)
  
• Frequency Comparison of Two High-Accuracy Al+ Optical Clocks (C.-W. Chou, D. B. Hume, J. C. J. Koelemeij, ..., 2009)
  
• Hybrid quantum devices and quantum engineering (Margareta Wallquist, Klemens Hammerer, Peter Rabl, ..., 2009)
  
• Universal Dynamical Decoupling: Two-Qubit States and Beyond (Musawwadah Mukhtar, Thuan Beng Saw, Wee Tee Soh, ..., 2009)
  
• Quantum phase measurement and Gauss sum factorization of large integers in a superconducting circuit (H. T. Ng and Franco Nori, 2009)
  
• Limits of quantum speedup in photosynthetic light harvesting (Stephan Hoyer, Mohan Sarovar and K. Birgitta Whaley, 2009)
  
• Quantum Process Tomography of a Universal Entangling Gate Implemented with Josephson Phase Qubits (Radoslaw C. Bialczak , Markus Ansmann , Max Hofheinz , ..., 2009)
  
• Scalable ion traps for quantum information processing (J. M. Amini, H. Uys, J. H. Wesenberg, ..., 2009)
  
• Realisation of a programmable two-qubit quantum processor (D. Hanneke, J. P. Home, J. D. Jost, ..., 2009)
  
• Distributed Quantum Computation Architecture Using Semiconductor Nanophotonics (Rodney Van Meter, Thaddeus D. Ladd, Austin G. Fowler, ..., 2009)
  
• High fidelity transport of trapped-ion qubits through an X-junction trap array (R.B. Blakestad, C. Ospelkaus, A.P. VanDevender, ..., 2009)
  
• Direct observation of Hardy's paradox by joint weak measurement with an entangled photon pair (Kazuhiro Yokota, Takashi Yamamoto, Masato Koashi, ..., 2008)
  
• Experimental demonstration of a hyper-entangled ten-qubit Schrodinger cat state (Wei-Bo Gao, Chao-Yang Lu, Xing-Can Yao, ..., 2008)
  
• Ultracold molecules: vehicles to scalable quantum information processing (Kathy-Anne Brickman Soderberg, Nathan Gemelke, Cheng Chin, 2008)
  
• Quantum computing with alkaline earth atoms (Andrew J. Daley, Martin M. Boyd, Jun Ye, ..., 2008)
  
• Quantum computation with graphene nanoribbon (Guo-Ping Guo, Zhi-Rong Lin, Xiao-Peng Li, ..., 2008)
  
• Uncollapsing of a quantum state in a superconducting phase qubit (Nadav Katz, Matthew Neeley, M. Ansmann, ..., 2008)
  
• Proposal of an eavesdropping experiment for BB84 QKD protocol with 1-3 phase-covariant quantum cloner (Yuta Okubo, Francesco Buscemi, and Akihisa Tomita, 2008)
  
• Space-QUEST: Experiments with quantum entanglement in space (Rupert Ursin, Thomas Jennewein, Johannes Kofler, ..., 2008)
  
• One-Way Quantum Computing in the Optical Frequency Comb (Nicolas C. Menicucci, Steven T. Flammia, Olivier Pfister, 2008)
  
• Realization of the quantum Toffoli gate with trapped ions (T. Monz, K. Kim, W. H\"ansel, ..., 2008)
  
• Experimental verification of the feasibility of a quantum channel between Space and Earth (Paolo Villoresi, Thomas Jennewein, Fabrizio Tamburini, ..., 2008)
  
• An All Optical Fibre Quantum Controlled-NOT Gate (Alex S. Clark, Jeremie Fulconis, John G. Rarity, ..., 2008)
  
• Demonstration of a Quantum Controlled-NOT Gate in the Telecom Band (Jun Chen, Joseph B. Altepeter, Milja Medic, ..., 2008)
  
• High-fidelity gates in a Josephson qubit (Erik Lucero , M. Hofheinz , M. Ansmann , ..., 2008)
  
• Silica-on-Silicon Waveguide Quantum Circuits (Alberto Politi, Martin J. Cryan, John G. Rarity, ..., 2008)
  

Theory and Algorithms

• On the feasibility of self-correcting quantum memory (Beni Yoshida, 2011)
  
• Speed from Repetition (Shelby Kimmel, 2011)
  
• Super-Polynomial Quantum Speed-ups for Boolean Evaluation Trees with Hidden Structure (Bohua Zhan, Shelby Kimmel, Avinatan Hassidim, 2011)
  
• Impossibility of Succinct Quantum Proofs for Collision-Freeness (Scott Aaronson, 2011)
  
• Logical independence and quantum randomness (Tomasz Paterek, Johannes Kofler, Robert Prevedel, ..., 2008)
  
• Randomized Benchmarking of Quantum Gates (E. Knill, D. Leibfried, R. Reichle, ..., 2008)
  
• Constructing Quantum Network Coding Schemes from Classical Nonlinear Protocols (Hirotada Kobayashi, Francois Le Gall, Harumichi Nishimura, ..., 2010)
  
• Perfect eavesdropping on a quantum cryptography system (Ilja Gerhardt, Qin Liu, Antia Lamas-Linares, ..., 2010)
  
• QuECT: A New Quantum Programming Paradigm (Arnab Chakraborty, 2011)
  
• Quantum Fingerprints that Keep Secrets (Dmitry Gavinsky, Tsuyoshi Ito, 2010)
  
• Exponential Quantum Speed-ups are Generic (Fernando G.S.L. Brandao and Michal Horodecki, 2010)
  
• Does Adiabatic Quantum Optimization Truly Fail for NP-complete problems? (Neil G. Dickson, M.H.S. Amin, 2010)
  
• Thermal blinding of gated detectors in quantum cryptography (Lars Lydersen, Carlos Wiechers, Christoffer Wittmann, ..., 2010)
  
• Position-Based Quantum Cryptography: Impossibility and Constructions (Harry Buhrman, Nishanth Chandran, Serge Fehr, ..., 2010)
  
• Insecurity of position-based quantum cryptography protocols against entanglement attacks (Hoi Kwan Lau, Hoi Kwong Lo, 2010)
  
• Simulating chemistry using quantum computers (Ivan Kassal, James D. Whitfield, Alejandro Perdomo-Ortiz, ..., 2010)
  
• The quantum mechanics of time travel through post-selected teleportation (Seth Lloyd, Lorenzo Maccone, Raul Garcia-Patron, ..., 2010)
  
• Ensemble based quantum metrology (Marcus Schaffry, Erik M. Gauger, John J. L. Morton, ..., 2010)
  
• Quantum Steganography (Bilal A. Shaw and Todd A. Brun, 2010)
  
• Cloning Entangled Qubits to Scales One Can See (Pavel Sekatski, Bruno Sanguinetti, Enrico Pomarico, ..., 2010)
  
• Reflections for quantum query algorithms (Ben W. Reichardt, 2010)
  
• An online attack against Wiesner's quantum money (Andrew Lutomirski, 2010)
  
• Quantum money from knots (Edward Farhi, David Gosset, Avinatan Hassidim, ..., 2010)
  
• Breaking and making quantum money: toward a new quantum cryptographic protocol (Andrew Lutomirski, Scott Aaronson, Edward Farhi, ..., 2009)
  
• The quantum one-time pad in the presence of an eavesdropper (Fernando G.S.L. Brandao and Jonathan Oppenheim, 2010)
  
• Characterization of universal two-qubit Hamiltonians (Andrew M. Childs, Debbie Leung, Laura Mancinska, ..., 2010)
  
• For quantum information, two wrongs can make a right (Jonathan Oppenheim, 2010)
  
• An Invisible Quantum Tripwire (Petr M. Anisimov, Daniel J. Lum, S. Blane McCracken, ..., 2010)
  
• Bringing entanglement to the high temperature limit (Fernando Galve, Leonardo A. Pachon and David Zueco, 2010)
  
• Fixed-gap adiabatic quantum computation (Ari Mizel, 2010)
  
• Quantum Reverse Shannon Theorem (Charles H. Bennett, Igor Devetak, Aram W. Harrow, ..., 2009)
  
• Training a Large Scale Classifier with the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm (Hartmut Neven, Vasil S. Denchev, Geordie Rose, ..., 2009)
  
• Quantum Metropolis Sampling (K. Temme, T.J. Osborne, K.G. Vollbrecht, ..., 2009)
  
• Random Numbers Certified by Bell's Theorem (S. Pironio, A. Acin, S. Massar, ..., 2009)
  
• Simulating quantum computers with probabilistic methods (M. Van den Nest, 2009)
  
• Sudden Death of Entanglement (Ting Yu and J. H. Eberly, 2009)
  
• Tradeoffs for reliable quantum information storage in 2D systems (Sergey Bravyi, David Poulin, and Barbara Terhal, 2009)
  
• Quantum Adiabatic Algorithms, Small Gaps, and Different Paths (Edward Farhi, Jeffrey Goldstone, David Gosset, ..., 2009)
  
• Self-Correcting Quantum Memory in a Thermal Environment (Stefano Chesi, Beat Rothlisberger, and Daniel Loss, 2009)
  
• Adiabatic quantum optimization fails for random instances of NP-complete problems (Boris Altshuler, Hari Krovi and Jeremie Roland, 2009)
  
• Efficient compression of quantum information (Martin Plesch and Vladimir Buzek, 2009)
  
• An introduction to one-way quantum computing in distributed architectures (Earl T. Campbell and Joseph Fitzsimons, 2009)
  
• Quantum algorithms know in advance 50% of the solution they will find in the future (Giuseppe Castagnoli, 2009)
  
• Adiabatic Gate Teleportation (Dave Bacon and Steven T. Flammia, 2009)
  
• Towards Quantum Chemistry on a Quantum Computer (Benjamin P. Lanyon, James D. Whitfield, Geoff G. Gillet, ..., 2009)
  
• The speed of quantum and classical learning for performing the k-th root of NOT (Daniel Manzano, Marcin Pawlowski, Caslav Brukner, 2009)
  
• Optimal quantum strong coin flipping (Andre Chailloux and Iordanis Kerenidis, 2009)
  
• Quantum Darwinism (Wojciech Hubert Zurek, 2009)
  
• Optimal quantum learning of a unitary transformation (A. Bisio, G. Chiribella, G. M. D'Ariano, ..., 2009)
  
• Quantized Poker (Steven A. Bleiler, 2009)
  
• A heralded quantum gate between remote quantum memories (P. Maunz, S. Olmschenk, D. Hayes, ..., 2009)
  
• Are random pure states useful for quantum computation? (Michael J. Bremner, Caterina Mora, Andreas Winter, 2008)
  
• Quantum algorithm for solving linear systems of equations (Aram W. Harrow, Avinatan Hassidim and Seth Lloyd, 2008)
  
• Most quantum states are too entangled to be useful as computational resources (D. Gross, S. Flammia, J. Eisert, 2008)
  
• Quantum reinforcement learning (Daoyi Dong, Chunlin Chen, Hanxiong Li and Tzyh-Jong Tarn, 2008)
  
• Can non-private channels transmit quantum information? (Graeme Smith and John Smolin, 2008)
  
• On the conditions for discrimination between quantum states with minimum error (Stephen M. Barnett, Sarah Croke, 2008)
  
• Counterfactual Quantum Cryptography (Tae-Gon Noh, 2008)
  
• Quantum Repeater with Encoding (Liang Jiang, Jacob M. Taylor, Kae Nemoto, ..., 2008)
  
• Quantum Computation Beyond the Circuit Model (Stephen P. Jordan, 2008)
  
• Instantaneous Quantum Computation (Dan Shepherd and Michael J. Bremner, 2008)
  
• Quantum algorithm design using dynamic learning (E.C. Behrman, J.E. Steck, P. Kumar, ..., 2008)
  
• Quantum Coding with Entanglement (Mark M. Wilde, 2008)
  
• The Quantum Internet (H. J. Kimble, 2008)
  
• Universal computation by quantum walk (Andrew M. Childs, 2008)
  
• Computational power of correlations (Janet Anders, Dan E. Browne, 2008)
  
• Superpolynomial speedups based on almost any quantum circuit (Sean Hallgren and Aram W. Harrow, 2008)
  
• Matchgates and classical simulation of quantum circuits (Richard Jozsa and Akimasa Miyake, 2008)
  
• Grover's algorithm and human memory (Riccardo Franco, 2008)
  
• Operator Imprecision and Scaling of Shor's Algorithm (C. Ray Hill and George F. Viamontes, 2008)
  
• Quantum circuits for strongly correlated quantum systems (Frank Verstraete, J. Ignacio Cirac, Jose I. Latorre, 2008)
  
• Quantum Noise as an Entanglement Meter (Israel Klich, Leonid Levitov, 2008)
  
• Quantum computing using shortcuts through higher dimensions (B. P. Lanyon, M. Barbieri, M. P. Almeida, ..., 2008)
  
• Quantum Illumination (Seth Lloyd, 2008)
  
• Noise gates for decoherent quantum circuits (Angelo Bassi, D.-A. Deckert, 2008)
  
• Quantum Direct Communication with Continuous Variables (Stefano Pirandola, Samuel L. Braunstein, Stefano Mancini and Seth, 2008)
  
• Can one see entanglement ? (Nicolas Brunner, Cyril Branciard and Nicolas Gisin, 2008)
  
• Noise Effects in Quantum Magic Squares Game (P. Gawron, J.A. Miszczak, J. Sladkowski, 2008)
  
• Polynomial-time quantum algorithm for the simulation of chemical dynamics (Ivan Kassal, Stephen P. Jordan, Peter J. Love, ..., 2008)